Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Wow they actually listened

In dual wins for local riders who prefer buses over streetcars, bus
routes that now run along North Rampart will continue to do so, although
they’ll make fewer stops between Elysian Fields and Canal, and a
proposal to cut off two other downriver bus lines at the French Market
and force riders to transfer to streetcars was rejected.

“We heard
from customers consistently that they want to get to Canal Street,
particularly from the further-out neighborhoods in the Lower 9th Ward,”
said CJ Bright, director of planning and scheduling for Transdev, the
private company that manages the RTA’s operations.

The decision
signals a shift in the RTA’s thinking. The agency’s past practice of
cutting off some bus lines short of Canal Street so as to boost
streetcar ridership has been heavily criticized, with some residents
saying it favored tourists over locals, who prefer fewer transfers as
they travel to work or other destinations.

Clamor rose in 2013
after the RTA opened its Loyola Avenue/Union Passenger Terminal
streetcar line and made service changes to some nearby bus routes,
forcing some riders coming from Uptown to get off their buses at the
terminal and switch to the new streetcar line to get to Canal Street.

But
this time, the RTA will preserve the North Rampart bus routes,
including the heavily used 88-St. Claude/Jackson Barracks line. After it
stops at Elysian Fields, however, that line will now stop only five
times heading to Canal Street: at St. Bernard Avenue, Esplanade Avenue,
St. Ann Street, Conti Street and Canal itself, Bright said.

It does raise the question of what the hell are the streetcars even for besides amusing tourists. But we'll at least accept that RTA is (grudgingly) willing to serve its actual "customers" for once. Although we wish they wouldn't call people who depend on a public service customers.